MCP accuses Malawi Electoral Commission of ‘crime against democracy’: Ansah must resign for credible vote

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP)  has called for the immediate resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Justice Jane Ansah, sayig the missing of voter registration kit was a “crime against our democracy” as it has raised fears of possible rigging in the 2019 Tripartite Elections.

MCP second deputy president Harry Mkandawire and publicity secretary the Reverend Maurice Munthali speaking  during a news conference  in Mzuzu, said  they also demand the immediate identification and dismissal of all MEC personnel that have had a hand in the missing of the biometric voter registration kit used in the ongoing voter registration exercise which  was found on a train in Mozambique this week.

“We demand the immediate resignation of the chair of the commission in recognition of her failure to prevent this breach from happening in the first place,” said Mkandawire.

MCP warned that if Ansah does not resign within seven days, the party  will mobilise the masses to demonstrate until she leaves her position.

“We will be expressing our displeasure further by exercising our right to protest as citizens in whose name and on whose trust MEC owes its entire existence,” Munthali added.

Munthali questioned MEC’s capacity to secure assets of public trust against theft and fraud, let alone an entire election.

“MEC’s silence was either due to their ignorance of the incident, which smack of incompetence, or due to a culture of secrecy in its operations, which smacks of conspiracy.

“Either way, the silence of the Commission calls into question its commitment to transparency in the facilitation of these historic elections,” said Munthali.

But MEC chairperson for elections services committee Jean Mathanga explained that all the data in the recovered kit is intact as it was encrypted.

The recovered kit contained data for those who registered for citizenship at Ndonda in Kasungu, Nthuwila School in Ntchisi, and Chauwa School in Lilongwe and got lost as it was being transported in an open Tata truck from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) en route to Mwanza, according to Mathanga.

“The Commission is assuring all people that the data that was registered in the centres mentioned above is safe. The procedure is that at the end of each phase, the kits are taken to the nerve centre where all the registration data is uploaded into our mobile district servers,” said Mathanga.

She said MEC was informed of the recovery of the kit on September 29 2018 and when she was quizzed on the decision by the commission to keep silent, Mathanga said the electoral body did not want to give the public half-baked information.

“We reported the matter to police and we are still waiting for them to give us the facts of the case. In the meantime, we are treating the matter as an issue of theft.”

Mathanga  said the commission is ecnoyraging electoral stakeholders “not to raise fear and anxiety with unsubstantiated allegations” of rigging.